WSU Wins 7th Straight

Hey everyone, Coach Moore here with an update on our last game and an update on a couple of our guys who have been injured.

Once again our guys came out to play right away in our game against Mary. We jumped out to a double digit lead in the first four minutes of the game and never really looked back. It was great to see that our guys were ready to go after playing a big game the night before. Their was not let down from our guys and the energy level was close to the level it was against Northern. This is great to see as it shows our guys are understanding how important it is to come out ready for every game. They could have easily looked past Mary but they did not and I give our guys all the credit for that as they were prepared for the game.

We once again shot the ball very well from the outside. DJ came out on fire and everyone kind of went off of him. One interesting stat we saw at half was DJ being 5-5 from 3 but 0-5 from the rest of the field, it is not too often you see a guy with a stat line like that but that is DJ and when he gets going from the outside he is tough to stop. DJ also did a nice job of attempting to get to the basket as well. We want him to be aggressive like he was on Saturday and even though he missed some shots going to the basket we liked seeing what he was doing. The rest of our guys also did a nice job of attacking the basket. When we do that I think everyone sees how we usually get a great shot out of attacking the basket. I hope our guys continue to attack the rim and continue to make the defense attempt to contain them. We played some great team basketball on offense and it was nice to see the ball movement and the extra passes to get guys a wide open shot.

Defensively I think we played another solid game. We did a nice job of getting out on their shooters and we contested a lot of shots they took. I also liked how well we contained them one on one during most of the game. The way they were set up on offense they we leaving the baseline open for a drive with everyone else up high opposite the ball, this put our guys on defense kind of on a island at times as they did not have much help or any help baseline. Our guys did a nice job not letting them get baseline too often and if they did get baseline our rotation were quick enough to cut off the ball before it was too deep. It was an excellent defensive effort from everyone who stepped on the floor.

Overall I think we took some nice steps forward over the weekend. We still need to score more with our big guys down low but that will come if we continue to shoot the ball so well from the outside. Our rebounding is continuing to improve each game as we continue to be aggressive in going and getting the ball. As a staff I think we are happy to be where we are in conference standings given the start to the year but we cannot feel too comfortable. The conference season is still so young and so much can happen before it is all said and done. I think our guys do realize this though and they will continue to battle each weekend as they are not satisfied with where we are in the standings. This weekend will be a good weekend to get out on the road once again and bond as a team. It will also let us see how far we have come as a team as it will be two difficult games.

A quick update on a couple of our injured guys. Bryce Welch is close to being ready to go. He can run some and has been shooting for the last five days or so. I would think he might be ready for this weekend if everything this week goes well. C-Rob is still nursing his sore ankle. He actually rolled his ankle the opposite way of which it was done last time, so now the swelling is in the inside and not on the outside. We will work on getting him back but ankles are so hard to figure out sometime that he will be day to day for a while.

Go Warriors!!!